attempered in their influence by the most salubrious zephyrs. The glorious mountains too were before us: the foremost ranges, darkening with woods; the furthest, glittering with eternal frosts! "It is a goodly sight to see "What Heaven hath done for this delicious land." Here the vines covered the coteaux above our heads; below us, they hung in festoons from one willoy branch to another or shaded with their leaves the dwelling of the cottager. It occurred to us, en passant, that the mode of grape culture here can hardly be favourable to the production of good wine; since by training the tendrils horizontally, and cropping the soil underneath with vegetables, light and heat are too much excluded from the root and stems of the vine. We saw scarcely any other species of corn than the Indian, which grows to a great height and with very large pods. In the neighbourhood of Milan the farmers were complaining of too rank a crop in this district we found the abundance excessive; and they had evidently had "rain given them in due season. 99 From Comerio we pursued our way through a country thickly planted with walnuts, chesnuts, mulberries, figs, and pears-not forgetting plenty of Madonna Shrines. The Lake of Varese and the much smaller one of Rivara near it continued to be brilliant spots in the gorgeous prospect as viewed in a descending course towards Gavirate. Thence we passed along a rich valley; the road being lined on each side by hedges, over which we see either a continued orchard, or inclosures for produce resembling that of a kitchen garden. Little wag gons drawn by oxen remind us of our proximity to the narrow passes of mountains. The peasantry look but so-so. The women seem to have the hardest share of labour imposed on them, and they work in the fields without shoes or stockings. After winding along for some miles at the base of a lofty ridge of rocks, which terminates with the towering acclivity of Monte Beusser, we arrived about noon at Laveno, on the eastern shore of the Lago Maggiore. We found the inhabitants of the place and neighbourhood equally busied with the religious pomp and circumstance of a fête, and with the secular amusements of a fair. The innkeepers and the boatmen, however, attentively keeping an eye on the main chance, were not such devotees to either, as to neglect the passing stranger who (they thought) could pay. Accordingly we were soon provided with a vessel of proper size for the conveyance of our carriage, which we sent forward, in charge of the servant to Baveno; and shortly after embarked in a smaller sailing boat for the Borromean Isles.* The wind was in our favour; and sailing in a north-west direction we were in a little time presented with a fine view of the town of Intra on the opposite coast of this great inland sea; "its blooming mountains and its sunny shores." The Lago Maggiore is indeed superb; and our voyage upon it taught us to respect the power of its waves in their *"The common charge for a four oared boat is 18 francs (French). It is needful in the first place to make choice of the largest and stoutest vessel, because the navigation of the lake is often stormy, and to engage for four rowers. In the second place to retain the boat in your service for the whole day."-Upon these terms and directions of M. Reichard we acted, and had no trouble with the boatmen. 170 LAGO MAGGIORE.-BORROMEAN ISLES. state of agitation from a fresh blowing gale. But this lake being considerably broader than that of Como, its navigation is consequently less liable to dangerous gusts from the mountains. The boats used on it, however, are for the most part ill suited to combat with its frequent propensity to assume a degree of commotion which even the mariner would not despise. This fact was rendered obvious to us by the extreme caution observed on the part of our crew, (four stout fellows) in the management of their square sail; the sheets of which they never once fastened, but kept holding on with their hands at the bottom of the canvass, ready to slacken and let it fly loose again, as might in a moment be required. Three-quarters of an hour's sail brought us to the western gulf; and we landed on Isola Madre, so called from its being the largest of the three islands which belong to the Borromean family and bear its name. We climbed a broken staircase hewn in the rock, on which stands a tower that might figure in some descriptive passage of Mrs. Radcliffe's novels, as the decayed outwork of an ancient baronial strong-hold. Here the gardener civilly received us; and with him as a guide, quitting a spot where our eyes were already fixing themselves, with insatiate gaze, now on the green billows of the lake below, then on the brilliant scenery enriching its extremest distance, we entered a thick covert, in which pheasants and hares are right seignorially preserved. Emerging from these shades, we proceeded through a grove of fine old laurel trees, down to the lowest garden, where the aloe, the orange, and the citron grow each in their natural state as standards or as espaliers. Vases and pots, containing the most fragrant as well as the most delicate flowers, were arranged along the parapet of this terrace, whose aspect is due south. Thence we mounted six others in succession before we arrived at the house, situated on the topmost platform.— The walks in our ascent, alternately exposed to and sheltered from the sun, presented at each step the sweetest of odours, and the most captivating of hues.-Isola Madré is about a mile in circumference; and on its stony foundation, human art, labour, and perseverance have accomplished the formation of a soil which can well boast in perfection the triple gifts of Pan, Flora, and Pomona. "Here kindly warmth their mounting juice ferments Among other fine timber trees we observed the Evergreen or Live Oak (Quercus Ilex), an Egyptian Cypress, ninety feet high, and some specimens of the Scotch Fir (Pinus Sylvestris), one of them eight feet in circumference.-In the shrubberies were some beautiful lilac-tinted and blue Hortensias; and a splendid shew of the Rose Laurel (Nerium Oleander), exhibiting many different colours and qualities, such as the white, the yellow, the red, the double, the simple, &c.-They shewed us the Aviary, in expectation of surprising us with what is in truth but a meagre collection: pheasants and guinea fowl are the chief curiosities! The Botanic Garden is better worth seeing. As to the Chateau, it is ill built and worse furnished. Pictures there are; but not worthy of mention; not even the Italian battles of General Borromeo, who fought them, it seems, in 1734. The chapel is on the same scale of mediocrity, and in a like state of neglect and decay. To an admirer of picturesque magnificence, however, the mansion on Isola Madre affords more than a compensation, by its command of prospects in which the lovely, the interesting, the extensive, the sublime, "Mix'd in one mighty scene, with varied beauty glow." The sea-like expanse of waters, bounded on every side at a greater or less distance by hills of diversified form and altitude, which yet recede with an easy and gradual rise from the shores-Isola Bella, "the first gem" of the lake, a true “emerald isle," lying on the south-western border; beyond it the town of Streza, backed by wooded eminences, the church and houses on the Isle of Piscatori appearing with charming effect in the line of Baveno; to the east the promontory of Monte Beusser, with Laveno at its foot, where a white line of habitations breaks the dark masses of that bolder coast; to the north a full and distinct view of the town of Pallanza, situated on the water's edge, and at the base of a lofty mountain, remarkable for the rich verdure of its gently sloping sides; the villages, churches, convents, and chapels, the country seats, gardens, and vineyards, that overspread almost every part of the enchanting ridges of Castagnuola.-These are among the delicious objects, widely spread around the insulated position from which we beheld them; yet these may be termed home views, compared with that in which, looking up the gulph where the Toccia enters the Lago Maggiore, we saw alpine solitudes ascend in the far distant horizon, and noted the direction of our future course, by the sparkling tops of the Simplon ! |